July 2019 Playthrough - Super Mario Land & Super Mario Land 2

[MetalFRO]

Well, I streamed Super Mario Land this evening, and ended up clearing it twice - once on Normal, and once on Hard:

Normal high score:

[MetalFRO]

Here's my Hard mode score, seen during the end sequence.

Also, here's my stream, in case anyone's interested:

[Mr_Stubbes]

I finished SML2 as well and had a lot of fun doing it.

[img width=600 height=537]http://i.imgur.com/pfGbIKX.jpg[/img]

[Crabmaster2000]

Regarding Super Mario Land, I'm definitely in the camp that says it doesn't quite feel right. Not a fan of the physics in this game and that really tarnishes the entire game for me. Like MetalFRO stated, because this is so early in the Mario timeline we didn't have established tropes for the series yet. So I don't think it's fair to be to tough on things that are different from Super Mario Bros, but I can't help it there is some stuff they should have just ripped off from that game. For example the ricocheting fireball is the worst. It's so easy to miss something and on a lot of stages that means waiting for that ball to bounce around a dozen times until it disappears. The turtles exploding can really kill the forward momentum/pacing of the game for me. The shmup stages, while I'm not against the idea, are so insanely easy and slow that there is just no fun in them.

With the 2 Mario games prior to SML you've got an amazing cast of enemies that are so iconic that many of them are still used in Mario titles and merchandising to this day. Every single enemy in SML is a bland forgettable attempt with no style or substance behind them. Prior to Mario Odyssey in which Nintendo finally decided to tweak the formula Mario games have had a bad rap for lives being meaningless, yet they are still in the game. I feel like that started with Super Mario Land and was in every major Mario game since that point. If that's the one thing to stick around moving forward from this game that's not a great legacy. The whole game itself is half the game Super Mario Bros was 4 years prior and doesn't have the same richness of secrets that SMB had either. When you finish a game that is half as long as SMB and have 30 lives left, something doesn't feel right. The bonus stage at the end of the level is a bad idea imo also. Too easy to get and abuse.

I definitely agree with bombatomba that the music is fantastic in SML though and definitely the highlight of playing this game for me.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think a lot of us growing up were in the mindset that handheld versions of console games were almost always inferior. I think SML is a prime example of that and a big reason why that stigma persisted for so long. I LOVE the Super Mario games and I've 100%'d nearly all of them in my life. I don't think SML is a bad game, I think it's a below average game though and it absolutely is near the bottom of my list of best Super Mario games and doesn't quite live up to the high standards most of the series offers.

[Mr_Stubbes]

Regarding Super Mario Land, I'm definitely in the camp that says it doesn't quite feel right. Not a fan of the physics in this game and that really tarnishes the entire game for me. Like MetalFRO stated, because this is so early in the Mario timeline we didn't have established tropes for the series yet. So I don't think it's fair to be to tough on things that are different from Super Mario Bros, but I can't help it there is some stuff they should have just ripped off from that game. For example the ricocheting fireball is the worst. It's so easy to miss something and on a lot of stages that means waiting for that ball to bounce around a dozen times until it disappears. The turtles exploding can really kill the forward momentum/pacing of the game for me. The shmup stages, while I'm not against the idea, are so insanely easy and slow that there is just no fun in them.

With the 2 Mario games prior to SML you've got an amazing cast of enemies that are so iconic that many of them are still used in Mario titles and merchandising to this day. Every single enemy in SML is a bland forgettable attempt with no style or substance behind them. Prior to Mario Odyssey in which Nintendo finally decided to tweak the formula Mario games have had a bad rap for lives being meaningless, yet they are still in the game. I feel like that started with Super Mario Land and was in every major Mario game since that point. If that's the one thing to stick around moving forward from this game that's not a great legacy. The whole game itself is half the game Super Mario Bros was 4 years prior and doesn't have the same richness of secrets that SMB had either. When you finish a game that is half as long as SMB and have 30 lives left, something doesn't feel right. The bonus stage at the end of the level is a bad idea imo also. Too easy to get and abuse.

I definitely agree with bombatomba that the music is fantastic in SML though and definitely the highlight of playing this game for me.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think a lot of us growing up were in the mindset that handheld versions of console games were almost always inferior. I think SML is a prime example of that and a big reason why that stigma persisted for so long. I LOVE the Super Mario games and I've 100%'d nearly all of them in my life. I don't think SML is a bad game, I think it's a below average game though and it absolutely is near the bottom of my list of best Super Mario games and doesn't quite live up to the high standards most of the series offers.

I can agree with some of this for SML. I found the controls a touch stiff and I had a few issues with hit boxes, where I clearly jumped on top of an enemy but would end up losing a life. I also found the fireball mechanics annoying as well. The action in itself felt weird and sluggish and waiting for a fireball to disappear was sometimes annoying. The difficulty of the game was also kind of an issue to me. It is very easy to rack up lives (even in the hard mode) resulting in little consequence to losing them, also with the clock resetting with each new life, it really slowed down the sense of urgency of the game to the point where the timer really doesn't matter. Had the bonus stages been harder to access the game may have been a little more challenging. As for the enemies, I thought they were interesting with a lot of variety. There were the standard goombas, koopa Troopa, piranha plants, etc,  which were for the most part true to their concept (except for the exploding koopas). I also liked the one off enemies for this series, like the fast moving Easter Island heads, the high jumping seahorses that shot balls at you, and the what I guess were elves? that were only stunned by being jumped on added some different obstacles to the game.

I think as the first portable system Mario game, I feel like this is right where it needed to be. They mimicked some things from NES version and tried some new things as well to make it a new yet familiar Mario experience.    

[MetalFRO]

One thing I would say regarding the "fireball" is that it's not actually a fireball. The manual states that it's a "super ball" instead. Hence, why it bounces off surfaces. This was a conscious decision by the development team, so keep that in mind.

In terms of my updated thoughts on the game, I was ruminating on stream last night about the fact that I didn't even realize there was a Hard mode. After having played through it, my years of experience with the game meant that it didn't end up being that much more difficult. But I can see it being a fair challenge for a newcomer. There are quite a few more enemies in that higher difficulty setting, and a few spots where the enemy placement might feel a bit cheap, because of how you would normally run through a Mario level. That said, it was still fairly easy to overcome, and I enjoyed seeing the game in a different light, all these years later. This is one of those games where I might be tempted to buy a Super Mario Land DX cart, just to have the colorization. The game's music is so ingrained with me, and all the tunes in the game make me smile. I can't separate out my nostalgia for the game, and look at it very objectively, because I just love it too much.

[MetalFRO]

I managed to beat Super Mario Land 2 in a single sitting, this evening. First time doing that. I had some fun with it, although the difficulty spike in the castle always throws me. I still prefer the original, even though I know that, objectively speaking, this is the better game. I have way more nostalgia for it, it plays faster, and slightly smoother, has a way better soundtrack, and I just enjoy it more, on the whole. I do appreciate that Nintendo was legitimately trying to make Mario on Game Boy a real contender, however. It followed the Super Mario World formula, brought in a new power-up, with the bunny ears, and introduced Wario, who has become a mainstay character of his own. But the music, despite having that bouncy, whimsical feel, often feels too much like variations on a theme, like Super Mario World. But it's not quite as well composed as that. On the upside, the different themed areas were a nice touch, though some of the enemy choices are a little goofy, such as the walking Jason Voorhees masks in the Pumpkin Zone. Also, the fact that you have to stomp on boss enemies in approximately the middle third of the top of their sprite is annoying. No Mario game before, or since, was as specific about how you had to take out bosses with a trio of simple bounces. It makes the boss fight on the moon more frustrating than it has to be. Despite all this, it's still a must play on the Game Boy, and something I've come back to a number of times over the years.

Here's my stream of it, if anyone's interested:

[TurnAroundAndRun]

I'm a little behind everyone, but I am in! Starting Super Mario Land today.

[singlebanana]

I'm a little behind everyone, but I am in! Starting Super Mario Land today.

Wooo! Woooo!

[Mr_Stubbes]

I was able to beat it in one sitting as well, it was a fun game that got me through a flight back home. I liked the varied worlds that existed in this game. My favorite one was Mario Zone even though the choice for the boss was a little weird. The difficulty of the game definitely leaned on the side of easy, due to coins and lives being easy to obtain. By repeating the floating bubble level you could rack up serious coinage in no time at all for chances of scoring big on the slot machine. In my playthrough I was able to hit the the 99 lives slot making the game a cakewalk. Also what adds to the lower difficulty is if you should run out of lives, all worlds you have cleared can be accessed again and you can go to the boss level immediately. While the final castle with Wario does she a big increase in game difficulty, if you were able to amass a bunch of lives from the slot machine, it takes some of the sting off. As for the boss hit boxes I didn't notice that I had to jump in the center of there head, I'm not 100% positive but I believe I had many instances were i was damaging them by jumping on the top left and right of their heads as well. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I played the 3DS virtual console version?
 
Ultimately I enjoyed both games for the July Playthrough. I'm glad I participated and finally played some classic games that I never had a chance to play when I was younger. I still haven't yet, but Super Mario Land 3 is on my list of games to play. I figured its definitely worth the play to close out the classic Super Mario Land series.

[TurnAroundAndRun]

Just finished Super Mario Land 1. Finished it in two separate sittings, last night and this afternoon after work. Love it! It took me on a very nostalgic trip of my childhood.

[Crabmaster2000]

I'm definitely a lot more positive on SML 2 than the first one. First off it looks fantastic. Love the cartoonish style Mario has to him. Unfortunately he still doesn't feel quite right physics-wise and is a tad too floaty for my tastes. It's not egregious though. Big fan of the overworld maps in Mario games and this one is no exception. Really helps make the game feel like an adventure and even bigger than it actually is. I like the themes a lot of the levels have to them, the Mechanized Mario, Moon and Halloween levels being my favs. Big fan of the secret exits and although I prefer how they were handled in Super Mario World, I'd rather have them in here as they are than not at all. The Carrot is a cool new power up. The gliding mechanic is introduces is fun and there are a few levels designed to take good advantage of it and a few others that become incredibly easy if you can bring a Carrot with you into the level (which is fun design when it's not abuse-able on every stage).

My favorite part of the previous game, the music is definitely my least favorite part of SML 2 though. It's got among the worst music in the whole series I think. Aside from Wario I also think it has maybe the worst cast of villains. They range for ultra generic (beetles, frogs, ants), or crazy out of place for Mario game (Jason head with knife in it, 3 Little Pigs?). Very weird choices for baddies. Wario is a cool villain though so he makes up for a bit of the lame regular guys. Totally agree with Mr_Stubbes that 1ups are ridiculous in this game (like I mentioned in my SML write up I think that game introduced the idea to the series that 1ups are meaningless and SML2 definitely ran with that idea).

Also agree with Mr_Stubbes that there is a massive jump in difficulty for that final castle. I personally love that it feels like a real test of the skills you've been learning, but I could see someone being turned off from it because it does seem like a bit of a departure from the rest of the game.

A little thing that I absolutely love is that they got rid of the highscore counter! Mario doesn't need a score counter and it's unfortunately that it came back in other later games after this one.

Overall I think SML2 was a HUGE step towards meeting up with it's console counterparts in terms of quality, fun and scope.

[singlebanana]

Finished Super Mario Land 2 last night in one sitting. First time I have ever played it and really enjoyed it as well!  I cannot argue that the difficulty ramps up tremendously in the last castle. No save point FTL!  It took me 30+ tries, but once I adapted to all of the patterns, it was much easier to get to Wario. Funny story about beating this, but I will save that for the podcast.

Started Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 today.  I feel bad that we left this one out, but man, three games in a month to discuss would have been a challenge. However, I still plan to dedicate some time to it and talk about it briefly on the show. Anyone want to join me in playing it?

[Duke.Togo]

SML down.

[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/2pGdVBN.jpg[/img]

Having beat this a lot when I was younger, it brings back some fond memories. The physics still aren't quite right, and the hit detection is a little off, but it plays really well considering it was there at the start. Keeping a score in this one seems like an odd vestige with the number of lives that the game throws at you. If you want to pump up your score, it would benefit you to die a lot, which seems counterintuitive. If the game was tighter on lives then I think I would consider the score to be a better measure of skill.

On to SML2!

[Disposed Hero]

Welp, I played a few levels of Super Mario Land 2 and was enjoying it well enough, but when I came back to it my save file was gone, so it looks like the battery in my cartridge is dead. I don't see myself playing through the whole thing in one sitting, so looks like I'll be sitting out on this one.

Based on what I played, SML2 definitely feels like a step up from the first. The mechanics and presentation feel closer to Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World, although movement still felt a bit loose and slippery in comparison to those games. Seemed like a very solid game overall.

Started Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 today.  I feel bad that we left this one out, but man, three games in a month to discuss would have been a challenge. However, I still plan to dedicate some time to it and talk about it briefly on the show. Anyone want to join me in playing it?

I never played the first two SML games back in the day, but a good friend of mine owned Wario Land, and I remember playing it a lot and really enjoying it. Definitely worth playing for those who are curious.